“The case against this employee does not involve Kaspersky Lab. The employee, who is head of the computer incidents investigation team, is under investigation for a period predating his employment at Kaspersky Lab. We do not possess details of the investigation. The work of Kaspersky Lab’s computer incidents investigation team is unaffected by these developments.”

Stoyanov allegedly received money from foreign companies, and the case will be filed under a criminal code specifically for those suspected of aiding a foreign state or organization.

“Treason charges are by no means rare, so it is hard to know at this stage what is involved,” Mark Galeotti, a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations specializing in Russian security affairs, told Business Insider. “But simply the suspicion of passing information to foreigners for cash or carelessly might be enough.”

However, Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russian security services, described the arrest as “unprecedented.”

“It destroys a system that has been 20 years in the making, the system of relations between intelligence agencies and companies like Kaspersky,” Soldatov told AP. “Intelligence agencies used to ask for Kaspersky’s advice, and this is how informal ties were built. This romance is clearly over.”